For big companies like Amazon, Walmart, and Target, the Black Friday holiday weekend was a success, garnering $7.4 billion in online sales and hoping for $2 billion more after Cyber Monday. But today—on Giving Tuesday—thousands of nonprofits hope to find similar success.

“Whether it’s making someone smile, helping a neighbor or stranger out, showing up for an issue or people we care about, or giving some of what we have to those who need our help, every act of generosity counts and everyone has something to give,” the Giving Tuesday website reads.

Giving Tuesday started in 2012 to remind people in the midst of the Christmas hustle to do good. Last year, over three million donations were made with a total of $400 million raised for nonprofits trying to make the world a better place.

Even nonprofits are giving back. Compassion International’s president, Santiago “Jimmy” Mellado, and President Emeritus, Wess Stafford, came together to serve their local food pantry in Colorado Springs with a rice and bean challenge.

There are thousands of nonprofits seeking funds to continue their faithful work. A few of these organizations include, Helping the Homefront, which assists military families and blesses them with special Merry Christmas boxes; Operation Blessing, which feeds families and assists during natural disasters and Samaritan’s Purse, which…

New Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg is well-known for his advocacy of abortion rights, and a new report says he often opens his wallet for pro-choice causes.

Bloomberg’s nonprofit, the Bloomberg Family Foundation, donated $13,962,000 to Planned Parenthood Federation of America between 2014-2017, according to research by Newsbusters.

Planned Parenthood is the nation’s leading provider of abortions. In its latest report (2017-18), the organization said its clinics had provided 332,757 abortions over the span of 12 months.

Bloomberg, the former mayor of New York City, has a net worth of $56 billion. 

He entered the race in November and immediately jumped into the top five of Real Clear Politics’ average of polls with 4 percent in the nationwide Democratic race. He is in fifth place and trails only Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg.

It’s not the first time Bloomberg has used his wealth to support legal abortion. In 2014, he launched a $50 million reproductive health program to help women in Nicaragua, Burkina Faso, Senegal and Uganda “freely and safely make decisions about when to have children,” according to a press release. He also has donated to Emily’s List, an organization that supports pro-choice Democratic female candidates. 

“To me, it’s very simple: A woman’s right to choose is…

An elder who was arrested nearly a year ago as part of the Chinese government’s raid on Early Rain Covenant Church has been sentenced to four years in prison after being charged with “illegal business operations.”

China Aid, a persecution watchdog group, said Qin Defu’s sentence is tied to the church’s possession of 20,000 Christian books, many of them small gospel tracts. Qin was arrested along with Early Rain’s pastor, Wang Yi, and more than 100 other church members.

A Facebook post by a group supporting the church, and attributed to Pastor Wang’s former attorney, said the sentencing was unexpected.

“Police reneged on their earlier promise to his family that if they accepted a government-appointed attorney, they would ‘go through the formalities then release him,’” the post read.

Most of the others who were detained were quickly released after signing documents they would no longer attend the church, according to the Christian Post. Wang, who has publicly denounced the Communist government and encouraged civil disobedience, is awaiting trial at an undisclosed location. According to Qin’s attorney, Pastor Wang admitted his connection to the books and is likely facing at least 10 years in prison. He is charged with “inciting to subvert state power.”

“At brother Qin’s trial, we learned that the charge of ‘illegal…

An atheist group is urging an Ohio school district to stop its football coaches from praying with the players.

The Freedom From Religion Foundation sent a letter to the East Knox Local School District Nov. 27, alleging that the head coach and assistant coaches of East Knox High School in Howard, Ohio, are “participating in prayer circles during football games.”  

Prayer circles involve players kneeling (or standing) and praying together, and often take place before or after games. Sometimes, players from opposing teams join. 

The U.S. Supreme Court, the Foundation said, has struck down “school-sponsored prayer.” 

“The East Knox High School football coaches’ conduct is unconstitutional because they endorse and promote their religion when acting in their official capacities as school district employees,” Foundation legal fellow Dante Harootunian wrote in the letter. “Certainly, they represent the school and the team when they act in their official roles as coaches of the football team. Therefore, they cannot lead their team in prayer and cannot participate in their student’s prayers.”

The Freedom From Religion Foundation – which represents atheists, agnostics and skeptics – is asking the school district to stop coaches within all athletic programs from praying with players. The Foundation calls the prayers a “serious…

A Florida church has paid off $1.62 million in outstanding medical debt for some 1,300 Lakeland residents.

According to the Associated Press, Access Church is mailing letters about the Thanksgiving gift to the residents. The letter will notify the resident that their medical debt has been paid off and will include the message, “Access Church loves you.”

Ryan Jordon, the executive pastor at Access Church, said a member of the congregation suggested the idea earlier in the year. The church used it’s 2018 annual Christmas Offering to pay off the medical bills. Each year, the offering is used for the community.

“Sometimes it’s local with our church fixing roofs torn by hurricanes or fixing air conditioners,” said lead pastor Jason Burns. “Other times it’s to build houses, orphanages and churches in Third World countries.”

Access Church worked with RIP Medical Debt, a nonprofit organization, to find residents eligible for help. The past-due medical debts were owed by Lakeland city resident with incomes at or below 50 percent of the federal poverty line, which is about $8,500 for a couple and $13,00 for a family of four.

There was more than $3 million in medical debt.

“I was absolutely blown away, blown away,” Jordan said. “Everyone falls on hard times and health care is a need.”

Because of federal privacy laws, Burns said the identity of the…

Star of the new inspirational TV Show, “The Beverlys,” Christian singer and actress Jamie Grace hopes the series will ignite a passion in churches for fostering and adopting children.

“One of the most startling concepts I’ve ever heard and processed is this: If every church in America would commit to one child in the foster care system, there would be no more waiting children,” she said in an interview with Christian Post.

A passionate advocate for foster care, Grace jumped into the broken system as quickly as she could. She was single and 24 years old—one year younger than the minimum age for unmarried adults to foster in Georgia—when she moved into a six-bedroom house to prepare for children she hoped to love.

In the meantime, her parents also fostered and became temporary guardians to three young children. Grace joined with her parents to love those children and faced questions similar to those asked in “The Beverlys.”

“Much like ‘The Beverlys,’ there were questions like ‘how long?’ and ‘what does this mean for our dynamic?’” she said. “But at the end of the day, we did it for love. And that made every moment worth it!”

The Pureflix TV show will feature three orphaned girls—newcomers Mia Damico, Brie Duplechain and Raya Sunshine Mullan—who live with their foster parent, a failed record executive. Grace stars as their mentor and…

Some fourteen people are dead after a group of Islamic militants launched a brutal gun attack on a church in the West African nation of Burkina Faso.

Gunmen reportedly burst into the church as congregants were celebrating mass, spraying them with bullets. A security source reportedly told AFP news agency that armed individuals carried out the attack, “executing the faithful including the pastor and children” along with several others.

The attack took place in the town of Hantoukoura, which is located near the border with Niger. Though the identity of the attackers has yet to be officially confirmed, in recent months, the region has been under siege from Islamist fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic State.

In response to the massacre, Burkina Faso President Roch Marc Christian Kabore tweeted his condemnation of the “barbaric attack against the Protestant Church of Hantoukoura in the department of Foutouri, which left 14 dead and several wounded.”

“I offer my deepest condolences to the bereaved families and wish a speedy recovery to the wounded,” he added.

Over the past year or so, Burkina Faso’s Christian community has been crippled by brutal violence at the hands of Islamic terror groups. The number of attacks has jumped from just 33 in 2017 to 158 in 2018.

Earlier this year, four Christians were killed when militants burst into a church in the town of Toulfe,…